Summoning the Ancestors

I've just got used to using UK cash and its time to leave! I'm left with a pile of cash and now I'll have to learn Euros. Most shops here are still happy to take cash and in one shop I even got given one penny change when I spent 4.99.  I've also learned how to use the trains and buses. The BritRail pass for $NZ685 worked out to be an efficient option for 4 days of travel; from Gloucester to Edinburgh to Glasgow to Oban, then back to Edinburgh, and finally Llandudno. Over  dozen different trains. Although I probably didn't save a whole lot in $$, it meant I could avoid line ups at multiple ticket offices. I arrived in Llandudno yesterday and have been looking for the hotel that my grandparents William and Elizabeth (Lil) Cooke stayed at over 100 years ago. We have a photo of them taken outside Ormscliff with a large group of people.  Because in the photo it appears to be such an impressive and ostentatious building I thought it would be easy to find! But there must ...

I finally made it! On the way to Fionnphort Getting to the Abbey involved a ferry to Mull, a bus down the island to Fionnphort, then another wet and windy ferry ride to Iona. Then a fast 15 minute walk through driving rain to the shelter of the abbey, wishing the monks were there to greet me with a roaring fire!  Iona Abbey, one of Scotland's most historic and sacred sites, is the birthplace of Scottish Christianity and the Book of Kells. in the 800s three Colomban monks on Iona produced magnificent, finely illustrated and detailed manuscripts that formed one of the oldest books in the world, the book of Kells. They also made altar vessels and exquisitely carved stones. To protect it from Viking raids, the original book of Kells was taken to a monastery in Kells in Ireland.  The Abbey is still used for daily prayer by the Iona community. Our connection: Somerled, considered a Celtic hero who fought against the Vikings, tried to persuade the head of the Columbian mona...

  Either luck or destiny caused me to spend an extra day in Oban when my boat trip to Iona was cancelled due to bad weather.  My favourite things about Oban: The pungent smell of rotting seaweed on the waterfront walk The walking trails through Dunolie Wood, over 31hectares of Scottish native woodland Misha the friendly cat who settled herself down on my knee for a stroke while I was resting after the steep climb up to McCaigs tower The best fish (haddock) and chips I have ever tasted The multicoloured hydrangeas Finding out about the ancestors expertise with medicinal plants

High on a promontory overlooking Oban, Loch Fyne and distant islands in the Scottish Highlands are the medieval ruins of Dunollie castle. The site has been fortified since the sixth century. The castle was built and is still owned by the MacDougalls of Lorn, despite being  sacked and burned by the Covenenters in 1647, and attacked again during the Jacobite rising in1714. The 1745 house on site was the first home of the chiefs of the clan MacDougall after the family left the castle. It's now open to the public.  The Livingstons were a sept (extended family) of the McDougall clan which descended from the 12th century Norse-Gaelic lord Somerled who created the kingdom of Argyll and the Isles. Somerled's father, GilleBride was of royal Irish Ancestry. In 1140 he married Raghnild daughter of the King of the Isles. His eldest son was Dougal, the progenitor of Clan MacDougall. Dunollie castle ruins Inside the ruins Sign in the 1745 MacDougall house 

 The Edinburgh festival was probably not the best time visit Edinburgh city. It was so crowded! But fun to  hear music in the streets and see some talented buskers amusing the crowds. What a magnificent historical and architectural delight the city is- quite overwhelming for someone from as young a country as NZ.  I found the dungeons very unsettling and claustrophobic. It's one thing to read in books what happened down there, but another to experience the dank and dark airless space which still holds the vibration of cruelty, anguish and agony. It was challenging and I was grateful I had a cleansing prayer to offer. They got me! Edinburgh castle Wisdom amongst the cobble stones Steps to the Royal mile The Covenanters' Stone and site of gallows The new Robbie Burns appreciation The national museum The old                                                 ...

The little Welsh village of Hay-on-Wye was the world's first book town. It all started 60 years ago when Richard Booth bought container loads of books from American libraries that were closing. Books new and secondhand, on every topic imaginable, are for sale in over 30 shops in the narrow cobbled streets in the shadow of a Norman castle. I bought Bartholomew's antique map of Wexford and Tipperary. "I do not care for what the general world calls amusement such as balls parties, etc. They only weary me. I would rather be alone with books and papers." Great grandma Darkey Beamish 1877.

Tintern Abbey in a beautiful peaceful valley beside the River Wye, was founded 1131. The Cistercian Order stipulated that their houses must be built in remote places, "far from the conversation of men". Their basic principles were obedience, poverty, chastity, silence, prayer. and work.   

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